Just a Normal Vacation
by SporadicDeviance
Summary: The Xiu Xian Spa Resort; a place for relaxing, a place for throwing your cares away, a place for trouble that the Furious Five will get into. Update: Sorry for the long delay. I hope this new chapter will be worth the wait. Reviews are appreciated. CHAPTER 5 IS FIXED.
1. Chapter 1

In the tall southern mountain of China, there exists a series of hot springs in the Xiu Xian region. This region is well known all throughout China. The reason is that the springs are said to have special powers. Legend says that when the Gods gave life to the Earth, they put some of their energy inside the planet. Then, somehow, some of the energy was released into the waters of the Xiu Xian mountain region. With the energy from the Gods, the springs are said to be capable of healing the body and the mind of any who decide to bathe in the springs. As soon as one goes into the relaxing waters, the energy is put into one's body through their body. The energy from the springs is rumored to regenerate and revitalize the body so one feels like years of turmoil and pain just disappeared.

The Xiu Xian springs was originally just a spot for traveling Kung Fu warriors to relax at after a battle, but soon more people became aware of what the springs were capable of, and the popularity of the springs began to grow. Travelers began to spend some time relaxing in the springs before they continue to travel again while others just came to the springs to see if the springs were as amazing as others said. During the change in popularity, it was discovered that the springs were able the completely relax the mind as well as the body in which all stress seem to melt away from any being in the spring. Soon couples became interested in the spring's abilities to relax the mind and the Xiu Xian springs became a romantic destination.

With the growing commercial appeal of the Xiu Xian springs, over the years, a spa resort formed to capitalize on potential revenue. It was initially just a spa that took reservations from customers who wanted to use the springs, but as time went on, the resort grew and soon a village was built around the resort. There were hotels that had concierge service and 5 star quality rooms. There were restaurants of all types and styles of food. There were gift shops that sell memorabilia from clothing that had the Xiu Xian Resort logo on them to light snacks for any children that came with their families. Even the main spa building expanded and gained new sub-divisions like a beauty salon and a massage parlor. The Xiu Xian Resort was so popular, that it cost people a fortune just to be able to enter the resort itself, let alone have a reservation at the spa. The only discounts were given to the Kung Fu warriors that occasionally came to relax at the springs. Even with the high prices, however, the Xiu Xian Resort still had people coming and going, and the resort still gained profits and continues to expand.

Despite the popularity of the resort with both Kung Fu warriors and villagers throughout China, none of the resort's visitors came from the Jade Palace. It was not because the residents of the Jade Palace are unaware of the abilities the springs possessed, it was just that the Kung Fu warriors from there rarely had time off and when they were given free days, it was spent within the Valley of Peace.

No one from the Jade Palace has ever been to the Xiu Xian resort, until today. Master Shifu had granted the Furious Five a day off to go to the resort. Even though the Five were allowed to have a day off, their comrade, the Dragon Warrior, was ordered to stay at the Jade Palace for something the Five were not informed of.

The Furious Five did not think much about why their friend was not allowed to go with them, and they went walked all the way towards the spring. It took them two hours, but the group arrived at the gates of the Xiu Xian Resort. As soon as they entered the village, the Five were surrounded by the buildings and décor. Needless to say, the Furious Five were stunned.

"Wow! Can't you just feel the hospitality and warmth of this place?" a green tree viper exclaimed.

"Yes, I do Viper." A golden languor monkey stated. "it seems as if the resort prepared for our arrival."

A small praying mantis standing on the monkey's shoulder spoke. "Dude, Monkey, adjust your ego. Places like this decorate like this to make customers feel more at ease with spending."

"Whatever Mantis." a black necked crane at the back of the group said, "I actually like the decorations here."

"And that's why Crane is coming home with an empty money pouch." Mantis said to the group.

"Actually Mantis," a tiger in the front of the group interjected, "since we are well known throughout China as the Furious Five, chances are this 'spa day' will be free" the tiger said, putting sarcasm over 'spa day'.

Mantis seemed irritated at his friend's remark and he turned his attention towards the tiger. "Well thank you for ruining my joke Ms. Buzz-kill."

"Your welcome." The female tiger said immediately without turning her head towards Mantis.

Crane, Viper and Monkey started snickering at their comrade's timing while Mantis scoffed at his friends and turned his head away from his friends. Monkey then patted Mantis' head lightly with his tail.

"Hey don't be upset at what Tigress said." Monkey started. "If it makes you feel beter, I would have come back at you with an insult. So it could've been worse."

Viper and crane were now chuckling at what Monkey said. Mantis got fed up with the embarrassment and jumped on Crane's straw hat to be left alone.

The warriors continued to walk around the resort while going towards the spa. Viper and Monkey were talking to each other about the décor and shops still. Viper kept pointing out every piece of decoration that impressed her and almost every shop that crossed her eye while Monkey smiled at Viper's excitement and genuinely agreed with what she said. Crane was commenting on how he can already feel the steam coming from the springs. While mantis was not talking, he also felt the warm steam flowing in the air. Tigress did not talk at all; she just continued to lead the group through the maze of streets surrounded by the numerous buildings.

The group had to deal with a lot of the resort's guests as they made their way through the village. Most of the guest did not care about everyone else around them. Some guest bumped into some of the Furious Five and did not have the courtesy to apologize or even turn around. There were even some families that had children running around screaming their heads off, which was as much of an annoyance to the parents as it was to the Five. After dealing with the large crowds of guests, The Five reached the bottom of some stairs that led up one of the mountains towards a large structure with steam coming out of some windows. That was the main Spa building. The five Kung Fu warriors looked at the building for a while and they each wondered what they would see in there, until they heard a voice from behind.

"Hey there!"

The Five turned around, getting into their fighting stances, only to realize that the voice was coming from an old goat wearing some conspicuous, brightly colored clothing. The goat man seemed harmless enough, so the Five let down their stances. The group observed this goat and they notice his wide eyed smile on his face. There was nothing threatening about his smile, but the Five could feel a creepy unease from this guy.

After a long time of staring, smiling, and silence, Tigress finally spoke. "Uhhh...hello?"

The goat was still staring and smiling.

Rather than stand around for even more time, Viper decided to say something. "Soooo are you from here?"

"Oh no!" the goat stated, still grinning, "I am just a wanderer. I have no town of origin; I just go from town to town. Well actually, being a wanderer implies that I go from town to town. _Heh_-I'm being redundant. Well, what's not implied is that I'm not up to date on any social or political events. I mean, I know names, but not faces. I now, it sounds weird, but that's my life."

And he just kept going on and on about practically nothing with no end to his rambling in sight. The Furious Five found themselves in a predicament worse than before. The group did not know how to stop the wanderer's constant talking.

"Wow-" Crane attempted before being cut off by the wanderer's cackle. Crane just stared at the goat as the ramble continued.

"That sounds..." Mantis began to say, but he found no words to put into the one-sided, almost incommunicable conversation.

"Uhhhhhh" Viper tried to think of some words to say but she could not think due to listening to the clutter of thoughts and words from this goat.

Monkey motioned his arms and hands and open his mouth like he was about to say something, but he had no opportunity to talk. So he threw his arms in the air and rolled his eyes, mouth agaped.

Tigress did not try to stop the goat from continuing his random rambling. She just crossed her arms around her chest and stared at the goat. Her eyes seemed like she was analyzing what the goat was doing and saying. Tigress looked invested in the goat's story, but she did not seem to enjoy the wanderer's talking.

So the goat kept talking. He talked about his brother and the family he had. He talked about how he had a wonderful time at Gongmen city. He talked about how he knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who was related to a guy who talked to a guard at Chorh-Gom Prison.

Everything he talked about was not interesting. Every story meandered and bored the Five who was listening. If the goat never ceased his rambling anytime soon, there was no predicting what the Furious Five would do. Suddenly the goat looked like he was allowing the Five to talk.

"And now the guard has a phobia of fireworks, dynamite, or anything that looks or sounds like explosions. _Ha!_" the wanderer chuckled. "Well, anyway, are you five going to the main spa building today?"

"That depends," Crane started. "are you going to the main building today?"

"Why yes I am!"

"We're debating on all our options."

Monkey then joined in to help Crane with excuses. "Yeah, there were some stores that Viper here mentioned."

"That's right Monkey," Viper stated. "Plus there are also the restaurants and such-"

"GUYS!" Tigress yelled, making her comrades and the goat turn to her. "Master Shifu told us we are taking a day off in the springs, so by his order, we are going to have our 'spa day' in the main building."

The other member of the Five groaned as they turned with Tigress to go up the stairs. Immediately, the goat was rushing towards the group until he got in the middle of them.

"So I heard your tiger friend say that someone named Shifu sent you here," the goat started. "Isn't there someone from the Jade Palace named Shifu? Wait; doesn't that make you guys the Furious Five? Wow! I heard so much about you guys, but I never knew what you guys looked like. You know, I knew a guy who knew a guy who knew a guy who ate at a restaurant whose owner's son lives at the jade palace. You guys probably don't know him. I mean, being the son of a restaurant owner, he probably just works in the kitchen. You five probably didn't know he existed."

As he rambled on, Viper turned her head towards monkey.

"Monkey?" she whispered to her friend.

"Yes Viper?" the primate answered.

"How long is it going to take to go up these stairs?"

Monkey look at the top of the stairs and thought to himself how long the trip up the stone steps would take. "Well the stairs seem to be about one fourth as long as the stairs at the Jade palace, so I say that it would take around...fifteen minutes to climb."

"But Monkey," Viper began. "One fourth of the stairs at the Jade palace would take around eight minutes to ascend."

"Well something tells me that it will feel like fifteen minutes."

Viper groaned slightly and continued to go up the stairs with her head down while she and her comrades were continuing to ascend the stairs. And the goat that was going up the stairs with them showed no signs to stop with his talking.


	2. Chapter 2

Inside the main lobby for the spa resort's main building, where the spa staff was waiting for any resort guests, the mood was something less than energetic. The workers were all somber and tired. The woman at the check in desk was resting her head on her wings as she slept away her shift, a security pig was following a fly buzz around with his eye, and the rest of the staff in the lobby were either pacing or standing around in groups.

One of these groups consisted of a rabbit, towel-boy, an ox, masseuse, and a goat, manicurist. In that group, the rabbit seemed to be starting a conversation.

"So." the rabbit started. "Anyone got any stories."

The ox immediately jumped at the opportunity. "Hey I got a story from my last shift. I'm telling you, it's more than unorthodox."

"That's the kind of stories I need to hear now. Come on tell us." The rabbit urged the ox.

"Man, so I'm doing a regular deep tissue massage on a chimp," the masseuse started, "and I get the usual joints, same old boring stuff. Then, on his request, I had to do special treatment on his tibia."

"So you did that 'digging hoof, lost pain' treatment that you made up for requests." The goat sarcastically remarked

"I'm ignoring you, but yeah, I did that." The masseuse replied. "So, as I put my hoof onto the general area, the chimp makes a weird noise."

"How weird?" the rabbit asked.

"It's hard to describe, well, more strange than hard to described actually…Let's just say it sounded like he was wheezing and belching at the same time."

The goat looked at the ox with stern stare and a raised brow. The rabbit just scratched the back of one of his ears while trying to come up with the sound in his mind. The masseuse continued with his story.

"Okay. The sound went kind of like…" the ox took in a breath and then, "eeauh-uh."

The two spa members were starting to chuckle at the sound the masseuse was making. As the towel-boy and manicurist continue to snigger, the ox continued with his story.

"I know, it sounds weird, but what I heard. I swear. I pulled my hoof away, because the noise startled me. Then I remembered that I had to do a request, so I went back to do my technique. I knew that the client would make that noise again, so I thought 'Why not have fun with it?' So I started to alternate hooves, which made the chimp go 'eeauh-guh-guh eeauh-guh-guh'"

"Geez, sounds like my Dad's old quince fruit cart going through a dirt road." The goat commented, while laughing at the ox's imitation of the client.

"Then I pressed down on the tibia, and the sound was stretched out. Kind of like, 'eeeeauhhhhhhhhhh.' Then I alternate hooves in a way that made the chimp go 'eau-guh-guh-eauhh-guh-guh-guh eeau-guh-guh-guh-guh-guh.'"

The rabbit lightened up his laughter as he began to talk. "Wow. You're a regular rhythmic genius."

"Thanks." The ox said in a mordant way. "Then, all of a sudden, the chimp jumped off the massage table, shouting. He then turned and yelled at me 'What are you doing back there?' To which I explained that I was only doing my massage treatment. He then says, and I didn't made this up, 'Well stop that…I'm ticklish there.''

"WHAT!" the goat yelled, laughing dying down significantly. "You mean you were actually tickling him this whole time and that that sound was him laughing?"

"Apparently."

"Did a firework go off in his throat or something? What happened to the guy to make him laugh like your mom having an asthma attack?" the rabbit asked.

"Well then I-" the ox started, until he realized what his co-worker said. He then turned his head to the rabbit and glared at him for a while. He then returned to the story. "I told him that he wanted special treatment on his tibia. He then said that he did request that, but then he turned around and pointed to his rhomboids."

The goat and the rabbit glanced at each other for a couple of seconds, and then they looked back at the ox. "Uhhh…the what?" the rabbit asked.

"Yeah." The ox started. "The rhomboids. You guys don't know about rhomboids."

"Sounds like something I didn't bother to learn about in my math lessons." The goat answered.

The ox rolled his eyes. "Never mind, forget I asked." he said. "So, long story short, I gave the client a brief lesson in the muscle arrangement of chimps, I 'apologized to him for my mistake,' and the client allowed me to finish the treatment."

"That was a unique story," the goat said. "but I got a story of my own."

"Let's hear it." the ox said.

"Well," the goat started, "you know how the resort always has some angry guests."

"That's basically any guest that's not obnoxious, disgusting, annoying, spoiled, or just plain dumb." the rabbit answered.

The goat chuckled at the rabbit's statement, she then continued. "Well my friend had a client who was the extreme example of angry guest."

"How so?"

"Well, this chicken came in yesterday afternoon, and she was acting tense. She kept twitching all the time, her beak kept chattering and her eyes kept blinking spontaneously."

"Do you know why she was like that?" the ox asked.

"She never said. And quite frankly, I didn't care for asking. Anyway, she asked for a basic pedicure, so she was escorted to Qīng sè's chair. You know her? She's the new girl. "

The ox and rabbit nodded and motioned the goat to continue.

"Well Qīng sè started to get her talons, and nothing was out of the ordinary. In fact, the woman Qīng sè was working on started to calm down. After six to eight minutes, however, I heard a scream. The others and I turned to the client and Qīng sè. The client started to rant and rave about how Qīng sè apparently severely scratched the spur on her left talon."

"Well did she scratch her?" the rabbit asked.

"Qīng sè denies that she did. Qīng sè kept trying to tell the client that she didn't scratch her, but the client got even more angry. She got so angry that she picked up a shampoo bottle at Qīng sè. Qīng sè dodge the bottle, but the bottle hits a supply rack. That supply rack fell apart, and all the bottles of shampoo, conditioner, and nail polish were destroyed. After that the client stormed out the room saying that she'll sue the resort for a lot of money."

"Well did she send a lawsuit at us?" The ox asked.

"She did come back with a lawyer just this morning. But one of the lawyers of the resort told me that not only is she not going to sue the resort, but the resort is going to counter sue the chicken for all the damages done to the supply rack and the destroyed bottles."

"Well it serves her right." The rabbit said. "She actually thinks that she would sue the resort to scam some money from the resort."

"I know." The ox stated. "Plus the money she was trying to get would probably come out of our paychecks."

The security pig came up to the three resort workers with the fly coming behind him.

"I couldn't help overhearing this conversation here, and I actually got a story of my own to tell."

"Alright then." The goat said.

"Well, I was going through the hallways of the resort, looking for any signs of suspicious activity, when suddenly, I went through something horrid."

"Well what was it?" the ox asked.

"Well, this pig came out of the sauna, and he undid his towel."

"Well that sounds terrifying already." The rabbit commented.

"He then says that his towel was soaking in sweat, so he just threw his towel in the air with no regard for anyone around him, and the towel landed right on top of my head."

The ox, goat, and rabbit were appalled by the story; the ox sounded like he was gagging while the goat was just saying "ew-ew-ew-ew" repeatedly. The rabbit was shuddering in place at the thought of the imagery.

"I freaked out and I jerked the towel off my head. When I was able to see again, the pig was gone. I didn't have any identification on the perp, so he basically went off scott-free. Oh man, I can still smell the sweat off that towel" the pig covered his face with his trotters and he shook his head weakly.

"No way that happened." The goat said. "No way can a resort guest be that inconsiderate."

"Oh it's true. Just ask yǎn here." The pig said motioning over his shoulder to the fly.

"He's not lying." The fly, yǎn, said. "I saw the towel on his head, but not the perp."

"You know." The goat stated. "I am sick and tired of all these guests and the undignified actions."

Everyone in the group agreed with that statement with enthusiasm. The towel boy decided to add on the conversation.

"You're right." The rabbit started. "You know what, as soon as the next group of guests walk through the main entrance right next to me, I'm am going to say that they are all-"

Just then his sentence was interrupted by the door opening revealing the Furious Five and their wanderer companion, still in the middle of their one-sided conversation. The rabbit turned around to see five angry guests who looked ready to attack. The towel-boy's fury turned quickly into fear. He then started speaking again.

"Wonderful-people-who-we-love-to-give-our-service-to! Alright everyone, let's go to our stations! Heh-heh."

Every worker left their spots to go back to doing their job. While the rabbit was leaving the main lobby, embarrassed as he could, the ox came up from behind.

"Now what did you want to say to those guests? I didn't quite catch it." the ox said with a smug grin.

The rabbit looked towards the ground as he retort to his coworker. "Just go back to tickling your clients while I go take care of their sweaty towels."

The ox chuckled as he went towards the hallway that leads to the massage pallor. Soon it was just the Furious Five, the lady in the check-in desk, and the rambling wanderer goat that was with the Furious Five.

"And that's the story of how my cousin friend's kid saw a festival dragon ate a wolf bandit before the bandit could cause trouble. Ha!" The wanderer exclaimed. "Kids these days have such imaginations now. Well, I better get back to the sauna. I just went to my hotel room because I forgot my sandals. I mean, no point checking in twice right? Well, guess I'll see you guys later!"

As the wanderer left the room, the Furious Five took a breath of relief.

"Finally!" Mantis said "I thought he would never leave."

"I thought I would have to stab my eardrums with my fingers so I wouldn't have to hear that guy talk anymore." Monkey added

"You wouldn't have to." Viper stated "Your eardrums would have caved in due to an overload of incoherent noise."

"Good point." Monkey stated, chuckling with Crane at Viper's joke.

"Hey!" Tigress yelled to get her comrades' attention. "Let's check in and go to the springs before the chatterbox comes back."

The rest of the Five agreed as they headed towards the check in desk.


	3. Chapter 3

The lady at the check in desk seemed frantic. She was moving her wings all throughout the desk, eyes moving in all directions. The goose moved her eyes up, and she saw the Furious Five approaching her desk. The check in lady jumped at the sight, and ran away from the desk and through a paper door that was close by to the desk. She then closed the paper door, muttering something unintelligible.

The five kung fu warriors looked at each other in confusion as they continued to walk.

Viper decided to speak up. "Hey, why did she run to that back room there? Do you think she needs help?"

"I don't know." Mantis said. "Maybe she ran back there because she saw me, recognized me from all the stories about me, and ran back there so she can get a piece of paper, an ink stone, and a quill so she can write the time and destination for her first date with me."

Mantis chuckled to himself, eyes closed with a smug grin on his face.

"Or," Monkey interjected, "She ran back there because she saw you, recognized you from all the ACTUAL stories about you, and ran back there so she can get one of those big massage guys so she can have protection in case you decide to hit on her."

Crane and Viper immediately chuckled at Monkey's retort. Mantis turned his head to Monkey, eyes wide open and mouth agape.

Mantis then spoke to his jokester comrade "Dude. Not cool."

"Wait-wait." Monkey said with his hand raised towards Mantis. "She wouldn't need a big guy. She would only need a big enough scroll. That way, if you jump on her desk to try to smooth talk her, she can just slam it down on you as a subtle way of saying...'You creep me out.'"

Viper was now laughing hysterically and she started to nudge Monkey's arm jokingly with her tail.

"That was a good one." the snake master said. "That was very funny."

As Monkey smiled from the compliment, Crane wrapped one of his wings around his beak so his laughter will be controlled. Mantis just stared at Monkey with an irritated expression on his face, and then turned his head to the check in desk.

When the five got to the check in desk, Tigress put both her paws on the desk.

"I don't really care what her reason is for going to that back room." the tiger warrior stated. "I just want to know when she'll get back so we can check in and get this vacation done with as quickly as possible."

Before anyone of Tigress' comrades could talk to her, the paper door swung wide open. The Furious five turned their heads toward the goose and Tigress took her paws off the desk. The check in lady came out of the door and approached the back of the desk. As they watched the check in lady, they noticed that her walk was not natural. She put on a smile that was more artificial than genuine and her walk seemed slightly rehearsed.

When the check in lady got right behind the scroll on the check in desk, she looked directly at the group at the front of the desk and began to talk.

"Hello!" the goose said enthusiastically, "Sorry I went to the back room instead of checking you guys in, but I needed this from the back room, since I couldn't find one on my desk."

The check in lady opened her hand to show an ink stone in her hand. As soon as Mantis saw the ink stone, he looked at Monkey with that same smug grin he had earlier. Monkey just rolled his eyes as he groaned slightly at his friend's cocky attitude. Mantis, thought to him 'Why not? I'm on vacation.' and decided to jump on the desk.

When he got on the check in desk, mantis decided to begin his smooth talk. "Hey there. I'm sure you heard about me from all those stories and-"

"AHHH!" the goose screamed, making Mantis jump a bit. She reached under her desk and pulled out a large stick. "Get off the desk!"

The rest of the Furious five didn't know how to react to what was happening. Mantis regained his composure in time to notice the check in lady lift the stick in the air, but he didn't have enough time to react. Before Mantis could do anything, the goose slammed the stick onto him. When the check in lady lifted the stick, it appeared that Mantis was alright, to an extent. Mantis' front legs were sticking out, his eyes were twitching, and he was stumbling as he lifted himself up.

The check in lady covered her mouth and she put the stick back under the desk. She looked so embarrassed, it was clear that she was feeling regret about what she did.

As soon as he regained his balanced, Mantis heard a voice.

"Mantis."

Mantis turned around to see that the voice came from his friend, Monkey. When he realized it Monkey he responded to the primate.

"What?" the bug said.

Monkey looked at his friend with all seriousness, shook his head for a second, and he spoke to Mantis, bluntly, "I think she heard about you from all those stories."

Monkey grinned and shrugged his shoulders slightly. Mantis was now offended; his face seemed filled with rage and he held his front legs were held out to Monkey, shaking like he wanted to hit Monkey with them. Viper didn't care to notice Mantis' anger; she was too busy laughing at What Monkey said.

Crane was trying his best not to laugh; he was keeping his beak shut with his wing, he held his breath, and he shook his head. Eventually he decided to stop trying and let out the rest of the laughter he had.

When Crane stopped laughing, he saw Mantis giving him an intense stare.

"Well." Crane began, nervously, "it was kind of amusing."

Mantis shook his head and rolled his eyes. He then decided to jump on Tigress' shoulder, crossed his front legs, and looked at the spa floor, not saying a word.

Monkey decided to speak. "Hey Mantis, I didn't mean to offend you. It was just some harmless jokes."

Mantis just rolled his eyes.

"Believe me, I didn't want to make jokes to laugh at you, I made those jokes to laugh with you. However, I see that you're angry, so I apologize for my jokes."

Mantis just scoffed, "Whatever..."

The check in lady could not handle this anymore. She needed to explain herself.

"Oh please don't be upset at me!" the goose said with fear in her voice. "I just want order and organization in my work area and when your friend came on my desk, I just freaked out and used this weapon that we are actually supposed to use on anyone causing trouble when security is not around."

Tigress spoke before the check in lady continued. "Don't worry. We're not angry, for the most part. Besides, it was mostly our friend's fault anyway"

Mantis looked at her for some seconds, and just shook his head as he looked back at the floor.

"Alright then." the check in lady said with a sigh, "Let's check your party in. Before we check everyone in, name the person who made the reservation and the amount of people in the party."

"Shifu, and there's five in our party." Tigress said to the goose.

The goose looked through the scroll on the desk for a while. She kept unraveling the big scroll, looking at every name as they came by. After 45 seconds of waiting, she found the name.

"Ah. Here it is." the goose said "Shifu, party of five. Oh, it seems that your party has the station hopper passes in the reservation."

"Uhh what are station hopper passes?" Crane asked

"Well most guests are restricted to what areas of the resort they can go to due a schedule we assign them. With the station hopper passes, your party can go to any place in the resort at any time."

"Ah" Crane said in a pleased tone.

"As long as the station your party is at is not booked full or if the station is still open."

"Oh" Crane said in a less than pleased tone.

Viper decided to talk. "You know it's really strange that a resort that has a focus on relaxing and relieving stress puts most of their guests on a restrictive time schedule."

The check in goose tried to explain, "Oh but there needs to be some sort of organization in order to have fun."

"No." Viper interjected, "There needs to be some sort of fun in order to have fun."

Monkey and Crane snickered at Viper's comment. Monkey in particular seemed impressed with Viper's joke.

Monkey even elbowed Crane's wing lightly and talked softly, "Look at Viper here. Who knew she had some jokes."

Crane shrugged his wings "I sure didn't."

The lady at the check in desk took in a breath before she explained some more. "Listen, the founder of this wonderful resort had a policy: If you have too much fun in one place, you'll never know what it's like everywhere else. When he put the resort together, he put a time schedule policy for all the guests and stations in the resort to follow, so every guest can fully experience the resort. That's the way it's always been, and the resort has never had a complaint directed towards the policy."

"Well of course no one complained." Monkey exclaimed. "None of the guest could fit complaining into their busy vacation schedule."

As Crane and Viper laughed at the joke, Tigress stood with a serious attitude while Mantis still looked at the floor with some anger. The lady at the check in desk wanted to explain more about the importance of scheduling, but she knew that she would have to deal with a line if she spent more time explaining to these guests.

"Ok listen." the check in lady began, "We're just wasting our time here so let me just give you guys your individual keys to your locker."

The goose reached under her desk, making Mantis flinch a bit, and she pulled out two red keys and three blue keys. Every key had their individual number on it.

The goose gave the keys to Tigress as she continued. "The locker rooms are down the hallway to the right of you next to the check in desk. Both the boy and girl locker rooms are marked by the red and blue paper doors. The red keys are for the girl's locker room and the blue keys are for the boy's locker room. Your locker number is on your key. Inside your locker you will find your robe, a towel, and your station hopper passes. You will be going to hot spring area sōng, which is at the end of the hallway."

After the check in lady was finished, the five went towards the hallway that led to the locker rooms.

Before the Furious Five could enter the goose called out to them. "Oh and by the way."

The five turned towards the check in lady to see what she had to say.

"Let your in one of the mountain's numerous hot springs help you relax your tired body, rejuvenate your weary mind, and repair your broken bonds." the check in lady said with a bow.

Though none of the Furious Five knew why she said that last statement, they all bowed back to the check in lady, and they went into the hallway.


	4. Chapter 4

As the Furious Five walked down the hallway, most of them couldn't help feel melancholy. The bright curtains and decorative paper lamps on the walls were putting off a relaxed form of joy for all guests of the resort, but they didn't help brighten the sour mood of the Furious Five. The only exception was Viper, who enjoyed the colorful décor surrounding her and her friends.

The rest of the Furious Five were down in their own ways. Monkey seemed guilty. As he walked with his friends, he had his head down and scratched the back of his head occasionally, almost like he was chastising himself inwardly. Mantis kept staring at Monkey, with that same sour look he had in the lobby. Crane moved his eyes back and forth between Monkey and Mantis. Crane knew that something bad was going on between them and that trouble will happen during the vacation. The thought that makes Crane really nervous was that he would inevitably have to be the one who would deal with the majority of this. Tigress just kept walking down the hallway, seeming more annoyed than usual. The tiger warrior felt alienated in this whole scenery.

Eventually, the five made it to the locker room doors. The sign, hanging from the ceiling said 'Locker Rooms' and there was a description under the main text that stated 'Please remember all of your belongings, lock you specific locker, and have your key on your person.'

Tigress stopped her and the rest of the five as she turned to her comrades.

"Ok." The feline master stated. "Here are your keys. Just be quick in getting your stuff."

As everyone grabbed their key, Mantis spoke up. "Let's just get this over with."

Mantis jumped on Crane's hat as he and Crane went into the boy's locker room. Monkey just sighed to himself as he shook his head. The primate warrior felt a tap on his back and he turned around to see Viper.

Viper tried to make Monkey less depressed. "Don't worry about Mantis. He's just in one of his moods."

"Yeah," Monkey said "but I know how long his' moods last. I know that he's even madder than when he's usually is when he's in his moods."

"Don't think so much about it. You shouldn't blame yourself for Mantis' mood."

"I didn't say that I blame myself."

"You didn't have to."

The primate nodded his head as he sighed a bit. "Good point."

"Viper. Monkey." Tigress called out from behind Viper. "Quit talking and let's get our stuff from our lockers."

Monkey and Viper decided to not keep Tigress waiting and just go to their respective locker rooms. While Monkey was walking, he turned his head behind him to see Viper walking to the girl's locker room. Before Monkey could say thanks to Viper, she already got inside the girl's locker room and shut the paper door. He just shrugged his shoulder and thought to himself "I'll just thank her later."

Monkey walked into the boy's locker room to see Crane and Mantis talking to each other. Mantis was on a bench next to two towels and a robe. Crane was already wearing his robe and had no hat on.

"Hey guys," Monkey called out, "What are you guys talking about."

Mantis spoke out before Crane could open his beak "Oh just how the resort should make towels that are at an appropriate size for any bug guests."

Mantis lifted as much of his towel as he could with one of his front leg to show how big his towel is to Monkey. The towel for Mantis was big enough to be for Monkey. One eighth of the towel would be too big for the bug master.

"Well you should probably just cut the towel so you can have a towel that's not twenty times your size." Monkey suggested.

"I should have done that from the beginning." Mantis said.

Monkey nodded his head before he talked some more. "Well I better find my towel and robe, which, according to the number on my key is at locker..."

Monkey looked at his locker key and the lockers around him. He walked down the aisle of lockers, looking at his key and every locker to match the number on his key. While Monkey walked down the locker aisle, Mantis cut the towel to an appropriate size. When Monkey got to the lockers by Crane and Mantis, he stopped and looked at the last group of lockers.

"Maybe my locker's on this aisle." Monkey stated as he walked to the aisle to his right.

When Monkey entered the aisle, Crane and Mantis continued their conversation.

"So are you in?" Mantis asked Crane.

"I don't know." Crane began. "It just doesn't feel right, pulling a prank like that on Monkey. I mean this is worse than the usual pranks that you, Po and Monkey pull at the Jade Palace."

"That's what makes it great. And besides, Monkey kind of deserves it."

Crane shook his head. "You know he was just kidding around. Monkey is not the type to hurt other's feelings."

Monkey walked behind the two warriors to the other aisle. "It wasn't there," he said.

Crane and Mantis waited for Monkey to go to the other aisle of lockers to start talking again.

"Come on." Mantis begged. "You never do anything like this before."

"That's because I'm a kung fu warrior, not a child." Crane retorted.

"Yeah, but when you're on vacation, you can just let yourself go and do stuff you're normally afraid to do."

"I guess that's true but-"

"FOUND IT!" Monkey yelled from the other side of the room.

Crane jumped a bit and looked behind him before responding to Monkey. "Good for you."

"Listen," Mantis began, "Are you going to be afraid your whole life, or are you going to take a chance and have fun?"

Crane thought for a while before giving his response. "Alright, I'll do it."

Mantis nodded in approval and he jumped on Crane's shoulder.

"Trust me," the insect started, "you'll not regret it. In fact, you will have a lot of fun."

Monkey came into the locker aisle, walking towards his friends and wearing a resort robe.

"I don't know why," Monkey started "but these robe fell uncomfortable...Oh wait."

Monkey reached behind himself and he moved his hands around. Eventually Crane and Mantis heard a ripping noise, and Monkey's tail came out.

Monkey moved his tail a bit before talking. "That's better."

As Monkey turned to leave the locker room, Crane walked up and bumped into him. Monkey stumbled over a bit but regained his balance and he resumed walking. The three comrades walked out the locker room to find Viper and Tigress waiting for them. Tigress' robe had the same tear for her tail like Monkey's robe while Viper seemed to be wearing a tube made of cloth.

"Uhhhh what's that?" Crane asked, pointing at Viper's 'clothes'.

"Oh, this?" Viper said "Yeah, the robe the resort gave me wasn't appropriate for a snake, so I just ripped off one of the sleeves and I'm using it as a robe. It was either this or scaring kids by making them think a robe was crawling on the floor."

Monkey was laughing at Viper's remark. Mantis was rolling his eyes at Monkey's response while Crane gave a nervous laughter.

"Man I'm not sure about Mantis' idea" Crane thought to himself.

Tigress got tired with all of the stalling and she decided to speak out. "Come on let's just get to the spring so we can end this vacation as soon as possible."

The rest of the five didn't bother to retort and just followed Tigress down the hallway. When they turned around the corner, they saw a sign that said 'Hot springs, straight ahead' with subtext saying 'Remember the spring name your party was assigned to.'

"Alright remember our spring name is sōng." Tigress stated.

Tigress' comrades nodded their heads and they went down the hallway, looking at the signs and Mantis read the signs out loud.

"Fàng, no" the insect started. "...kuài lè, no... piàn jú ...what the heck?"

Before they reached the next sign Monkey spoke out.

"Oh man." Monkey said, putting his hands in each pocket on his robe, frantically. "I lost my key. I got to go back to the locker room to look for it."

"Hey, we won't wait for you. They'll be on the boy's side of spring sōng." Tigress stated, pointing to Crane and Mantis.

Monkey left the group to go find his key, and everyone else continued down the hallway to get to their spring. After four signs they finally reached their spring.

"Well here's spring sōng ," Crane said. "and only at the end of the hallway. That's nice."

Viper then spoke out. "Well we better start our vacation. See you guys later."

"Later." Mantis stated.

The two female warriors went into the doorway of the girl's side of the sōng spring and closed the paper door, leaving Crane and Mantis by themselves. Mantis jumped off Crane, chortling a bit.

"Alright." Mantis started "Are you ready to live?"

"I guess," Crane sighed "but I'll probably feel dead inside afterwards."

"GREAT! Let's get started!"

Crane rolled his eyes as he followed Mantis to carry out the plan.

As Crane and Mantis started setting up the prank for Monkey, Viper and Tigress were already in the spring waters at the girl's spring. The tall bamboo surrounded the spring as the water from the main spring flowed through a bamboo pipe into the stone pool of spring water. The hot spring water generated a steam that filled up the air. The steam was so thick, that one could barely see one foot in front of them.

With a soothing environment like this, it's easy to lose oneself in relaxation. Viper sure was relaxing.

"Ahhh." The snake sighed, eyes closed, "It's a nice that the resort put these sitting areas in the spring so guests like me can be in the spring without having to swim all the time. There's even a mini-spring for bugs like Mantis over there. This is a great break from the usual right...Tigress?"

Viper opened her eyes to see Tigress shoulder deep in the springs, eyes closed. Tigress kept breathing in and out in a rhythmic pattern. No part her moved in the slightest. Not even a single muscle. After a short time of silence, Viper tried to talk again.

"Tigress? What are you doing?" Viper asked.

Tigress opened her eyes and she turned her head to her snake comrade as she talked.

"I'm meditating." The tiger answered.

"Oh," the snake replied. "Are you enjoying yourself?"

"I am relaxing like Master Shifu told us to. And by the way, after thirty minutes in here, we'll get out of the spring and go get the guys so we get to the other stations of this resort."

"What about Monkey?" Viper asked, "He had to find his key. He won't be able to enjoy the spring as long as us."

"Well he was reckless with his belongings; he needs to pay the price. Besides if we stay longer for Monkey, we would have stay away from our duties longer than we should."

"Alright what's wrong with you?" Viper began, "You seem uninterested in this vacation. What is it?"

Tigress sighed and she started to explain. "I just don't understand the idea of vacation."

Viper was confused about what Tigress said.

"I thought Crane explained to you everything about relaxation and how vacations work." Viper stated.

"He did, and in great detail, but I just don't understand the reason behind a vacation."

"Why don't you? I mean after all the training and battling for so many years, nonstop, one would think that you would like to have some time off."

"Well I don't." Tigress said. "I like to go back so we can defend the Valley of Peace from any trouble, like Master Shifu would want us to."

"Well...Master Shifu got us the reservation as a gift so that should say something." The snake explained.

"Well Master Shifu didn't allow Po to come here." Tigress stated

"Well..." Viper began, while thinking about an explanation. "Po always goofed off while you, me, Monkey, Crane, and Mantis trained hard. Maybe Master Shifu rewarded us and not Po so Po can learn a lesson about taking his training seriously."

Tigress thought for a second and came back with a response. "No. Master Shifu wouldn't do that unless it was really necessary...Wait, in Po's case it would be necessary."

"You see."

Tigress thought to herself for a minute, and she came up with her own realization.

"Maybe Master Shifu sent us here because he wanted us to protect the resort from any bandits that would rob the place." the tiger explained.

"WHAT?" Viper asked, exasperated.

"Yeah, this place received a lot of money over the time it's been open, enough for bandits to want to rob it."

"Tigress this is ridiculous. I mean, who would try to rob a place that is so big, any bandit would be lost before they could steal anything at all."

"Well...maybe that goat we had a sort of conversation with before we went into this building."

"You mean the wanderer?" Viper asked.

"Yeah, that guy. He seemed suspicious."

"How? The guy was a happy-go-lucky, more annoying than threatening traveler."

"He could be just faking it because he recognized us and tried to fool us so we wouldn't try to stop him."

"You're being crazy."

"Alright," Tigress began, "Maybe the goat wanderer isn't trying to rob the resort."

"Thank you."

Tigress and Viper then went back to relaxing. Letting their minds go and getting their body rejuvenated from the spring's heat. Tigress, all of a sudden opened her eyes.

"Maybe it's the check in lady!" Tigress stated.

"OH JEEZ! You know, I'm starting to think that you are trying to get out of relaxing." Viper exclaimed.

"Listen, you may think that this is just a vacation-"

"Which it is!" Viper interrupted her friend.

"But I know that this is a mission, given to us by Master Shifu, so we can protect the resort from bandits and I'm going to take on the mission, with or without any help."

Before Viper could try to stop her, Tigress jumped out of the spring and immediately got her robe on in the blink of an eye. Before Viper knew it, Tigress jumped over the bamboo wall.

After Tigress left, Viper groaned as she stuck her tail out of the spring to rub her right temple.

"Looks like I'm going to spend the majority of this vacation by myself." the lonely snake said to herself.


	5. Chapter 5

Monkey was looking around the room for his missing key. He went to his locker first, to see if he left his key in the lock, but the key was not there. He sighed in frustration and sat on the bench that was placed in the middle of the aisle, thinking to himself.

"Where is it that key?" the primate thought.

Monkey re-checked the pockets on his robe, just to make sure.

"Nope," Monkey said aloud, "it's not there."

Monkey scratched his chin for a second, contemplating on where he left the key. After some time, he started to chuckle.

"I can spot any bandit in the most elaborate disguise, notice any suspicious shadow in the dark." Monkey stated, "I am trained to find any form of the unusual, but I can't seem to find a tiny piece of metal."

Monkey laughed some more before coming to a realization.

"Wait one moment," Monkey thought. "Crane bumped into me before I left the locker room, so the key might have fallen out of my pocket and on the floor near the door."

He went near the entrance of the locker room and looked around. Eventually, he noticed something under the bench in the middle locker aisle. Monkey looked under the bench to find his key. He breathed a sigh of relief as he picked up his key, but soon felt his relief be replaced by suspiscion. He got up with the key in his hand and lifted his arm, putting his closed hand near his face.

He opened his hand and looked at the key in it, he muttered to himself, "Why is this key damp?"

As he dried his key with his robe, Monkey decided not to think much about how the key got wet. He put the key back in his pocket, trying to think about other things. When Monkey came out the locker room, he started to realize something.

"Everyone is acting differently today," Monkey said to himself. "Tigress seems annoyed while acting slightly nervous, Crane is even more tense than usual, especially when we got to the locker room, and Mantis is pretty moody, even though I admit my jokes were more mean spirited than I thought before. The most interesting thing, strangely enough, is that Viper is being kind of a jokester."

Monkey laughed a bit as he remembered Viper's jokes.

"They were pretty good," he chuckled. He then stopped in the middle of the hall with a sudden realization.

"...I should probably stop talking to myself," Monkey whispered to himself.

Monkey just shook his head as he began to walk down the hallway again.

"I can't believe I'm acting so wierd on this vacation. I probably need to relax more than I thought," Monkey thought to himself.

He continued to walk down the hallway until he made the turn around the corner and noticed the sign notifying guests to remember their designated hot spring name.

"Alright," Monkey stated to himself, mentally, "My friends and I were assigned to Spring Song."

Monkey went down the end stretch of the hallway, reading each sign that labeled the spring areas, reading each name of the spring.

Fang... the primate read in his mind. "...Kuaile...Pianju...wait..."

Eventually, Monkey got to the end of the hallway and saw the sign that read 'Spring Song.' He looked at both entrances and found the sign indicating the boy's spring to his right. He grinned at anticipation, walked to the spring entrance, and opened the paper door.

Immediately, the thick steam from the spring impaired Monkey's vision. The steam was so thick, he could only see silhouettes of objects and other guests. Monkey was cautious as he walked slowly into the spring room, making sure he didn t fall into the spring or step on anything or anyone.

Monkey noticed the silhouette of a creature with, from the looks of it, a long neck. Monkey immediately thought that it was Crane, but he realized the he couldn't see a silhouette for Crane's beak. Monkey questioned it at first until he noticed steam coming from what it seems to be a small pool behind the silhouette.

"I guess the small spring is for guests like Mantis." Monkey thought, "Then that's probably just Crane and Mantis having a conversation. Oh thank goodness. I thought that my friends left me behind, or that I was in the wrong spring."

Before Monkey started to walk to the silhouette, another thought went through his head.

"Wait," Monkey said in his mind, "maybe Mantis is still mad at me for those jokes I said earlier...I ll just keep my distance from him, for now."

Monkey decided to take off his robe and get into the spring. As soon as he got into the spring, Monkey's body felt an immediate jolt of heat. Monkey gave off a small yelp due to the heat of the spring, which made the silhouette jump a bit. Monkey noticed the silhouette move, and he sighed a bit to himself.

Great, now I ll have an 'awkward' conversation with Mantis while Crane will have to be forced to be in the middle of it. Monkey thought with his head hanged low and his eyes closed.

As soon as Monkey finished that train of thought, he heard a sound coming from the silhouette.

"Hello...Is someone there?" the silhouette voiced out.

Monkey s eyes became wide open instantly at the sound of the voice. His body, which was loosening up from the spring waters, became tense without delay. The fur on his body that was not in the springs stood straight. He held his breath and tried to remain still.

The voice Monkey heard was not the high-strung, semi-masculine voice Crane possessed, nor was it the deep, loud, slightly raspy voice that Mantis has. The voice was a soft and feminine voice that was all too familiar to the frightened primate. Monkey knew who the voice belonged to.

"Oh thank goodness, I thought I was going to be alone for most of this vacation."

"It's Viper," Monkey thought to himself, "But isn't this the boy's side of the spring?"

As Monkey tried to figure out if he or Viper was in the wrong place, wishing as hard as he could that it wasn't him, Viper began to talk to the mysterious figure.

"It's nice to see a new person." The enthusiastic snake stated, "Anyways, I'm Viper. What's your name?"

Monkey didn't bother to reply, he just slowly lifted himself out of the spring. As Monkey reached for his robe, he heard Viper's voice rang through the steam filled area.

"Hey. Where are you going?" Viper called out. "Did I do something wrong?"

Monkey panicked a bit as he thought to himself, "No Viper. You didn't do anything. However, you will do something that involves inflicting pain on me if I don't get out as soon as possible."

Monkey turned his back towards the confused snake master, who continued to call out to the figure the she believes is a complete, female, stranger.

"Listen," the female snake started, "if you think you were intruding, you're not."

"Oh don't worry." Monkey said, with an attempt at sounding like a girl. "I just realized that I need to...powder my face."

Monkey tried to put his tail in his robe, so Viper would not recognize any features that would reveal him.

"Hey miss, you don t have to be shy." Viper started, "I'm actually easy to talk to, unlike my friend who just left me."

"Oh great." Monkey sighed with slight relief while trying to put his tail in his robe. "At least I 't get killed by BOTH my female comrades."

"...What?"

Monkey froze. He realized that he just said that last statement out loud. He could not believe that he was that reckless.

"What is it with me and vocalizing my thoughts without noticing today?" the primate thought.

"You sound kind of familiar," Viper said "Do I know you?"

Monkey wasted no more time on his tail, and he began to walk towards the door, being careful to navigate in the room filled with steam. After Monkey started walking, he heard a noise that sounded like someone was getting out of the spring. That sound made Monkey more nervous, and he decided walk faster. Right at that moment, Monkey's tail decided to slip out of his robe, being completely visible. After Monkey's tail slipped out, the nervous primate heard Viper gasp. The sound of Viper's gasp made Monkey stop in his tracks. Paralyzed he heard Viper speak out.

"Monkey?" Viper said in disbelief. "Is that you?"

Monkey decided that getting out immediatley was the best option at the moment, so he threw caution to the wind and started to run around the spring towards the paper door. However, his cautious actions made him not notice the puddle he was heading towards on the way to the door. When Monkey stepped on the puddle, he slipped and was in the air for a brief moment. The force of the fall caused his loose fitted robe to fly off, landing nearby as Monkey went into the spring.

Monkey drifted lower into the spring for a moment before regaining control of his body. He swam up to the surface of the spring, near the edge of it. After re-surfacing, Monkey wiped his eyes with his hand so he can open his eyes. When he opened his eyes, he saw that Viper was staring right at him, and that his and Viper's faces are mere inches apart.

Monkey's face felt flushed as he jumped out of the spring and he got his robe immedialey afterwards. Viper just stared at the nervous primate, letting herself think for a while. Monkey looked at Viper's slightly reddened face and knew that her expression is a mix of disbelief and shock. Before Monkey started with an explanation, Viper started to question him.

"Monkey," the snake master began, "What are doing in the girl's side of the spring?"

Monkey, still confused about if he was really on the wrong side and scared of his female commrade at the same time, frantically tried to put into words his side of the story. "Well-what happend is-the steam in this room-and there was this sign by the spring's entance-and-alot of steam, you know- and you kind of look like Crane-SLIGHTLY...look...like...him...Did I mention the steam?"

As Monkey rambled on with his explanation, Viper started contemplating her own theory as to why Monkey was on the girl's side of the spring. After some thinking, Viper came up with her own theory, one that made her eyes widened and her pupils constrict instantaneously.

"Monkey," Viper began, in a monotone voice, "Were you trying to spy on me and Tigress?"

The primate's eyes widened at Viper's accusation. Monkey was so shocked by the accusation, that he did not think as he tried to assure Viper. He just said anything that came to mind. "No! No...just...that's not what I was here for! Come on...would you think of me as that type of guy?"

Viper continue to expain her theory, the monotone in her speech slowly dieing away. "Of course...you must have been sent here by Mantis."

"No! That didn't happen."

"Yeah! When you and Mantis were in the locker rooms, you talked to Mantis about forgiving you."

"I was actually leaving him alone so he could let off some steam!"

"Mantis then said that he'll forgive you on one condition; you would have to spy on me and Tigress while we are in the spring."

"You aren't listening to me, are you?"

Viper continued on with her theory, the tone in her voice now turning from monotone-like disbelief to anger. "Mantis told you to pretend to lose your key so you can be seperated from us so that you can get into the girl's spring with me and Tigress not suspecting that it would be you. Then, you would spy on us and listen in on our personal secrets because that's what all girls do when they are alone, right Monkey?"

Monkey decided to back his way towards the door slowly as Viper's rant continued. Monkey's pace was slow and slightly clumsy due to his increasing fear of his hostile friend's angry tone in her voice and her piercing glare.

"And after you are done spying on me and Tigress, you would go back to your gang of morons and joke about all the hilarious flaws and secrets of your own friends just so you can be on good terms with the Head Idiot. IS THAT RIGHT, MONKEY?!"

"...No." Monkey stated, his back on the wall by the exit, "It's not even close to the truth."

"Well then," the snake started, "let me give you a GOOD-STORY-TO-TELL-YOUR-FELLOW-MORONS!"

Monkey noted the look on Viper's face as he saw her go into her battle stance. Her dagger like eyes, her furled brow, her lips curled revealing her small yet sinister fangs; everything on her face told Monkey that she was going to hurt him badly.

Monkey decided to stop wasting time and grabbed the handle of the paper door. He opened the door, immediatley rushed out the spring, and slamed the door. He stopped for a second to collect his thought when he looked at the sign by the spring's entrance. Now all of a sudden, the sign says girl's spring.

Before Monkey could question this, he heard Viper's screaming from inside the spring. He decided that now is not the best time to contemplate on the sign and began to run down the hall, away from the spring entrance. While running he heard slithering behind him and sound was growing steadily. He did not have to turn his head to see what was behind him but he did it anyway. Monkey turned his head around and noticed Viper giving chase. Monkey turned his head back and picked up the pace as made his turn down the hallway with his pursuer following suit.

A little while after Monkey and Viper made that turn, right by the entrances to the song spas, Mantis jumped off of the wooden beam on top of the door to the boy's spring laughing hard. Crane followed suit, slowly coming out from behind a curtain on the wall. Crane looked down towards the turn in the hallway his two friends ran through and then towards Mantis.

"Hey, do you think that we went too far with this?" Crane asked his comrade.

Mantis sighed and rolled his eyes. "You have a one track mind Crane. How many times do I have to say that you should just relax and have fun? All you really did was 'accidently' bump into Monkey to get his key out from his pocket while I switched the signs around. Besides, we may have gone too far if Tigress was also chasing Monkey and, as you just saw, she wasn't."

"Yeah where is Tigress anyway?" Crane asked looking at the entrance to the girl's spring.

"Eh, she probably left to find any supsicious activity that's not actually happening."

"I guess my talk with her about relaxing wa-"

"Absolutley pointless. Yes, I agree. Now listen to me; What we done is a simple harmless prank. It's not like we commited a crime, and besides, it's just Viper chasing Monkey and we both know that Viper would go easy on Monkey."

Crane looked behind him in the direction Monkey and Viper went towards.

"Are you sure?" The bird asked.

The bug warrior nodded his head. "I'm positive. Plus I'm sure Monkey won't get Master Shifu to punish us, he'll just find a way to get back at us when we return to the palace just so things are evened out. Trust me, evrything will come around full circle."

Crane thought to himself about what Mantis said and after a few seconds he agreed with Mantis' statement. "I guess that's true."

"But until then," the proud insect stated, "let's just enjoy our vacation since it seems we're the only ones who will."

Crane nodded his head and opened the door to the boy's spring. To which Mantis started to talk again.

"Hey wait." Mantis said, causing Crane to stop and turn his head to the bug, "Are you sure that's the boy's side of the spring?"

Crane and Mantis chuckled at the sarcatic question, and they both entered their side of the spring.


End file.
